Is there any form of fiction more overplayed right now than goddamn fucking vampires? We’ve got “True Blood” and the novels on which it’s based, we’ve got “Twilight”, and of course Anne Rice’s terrible books are still hanging around. There’s the Underworld movies too, and now there’s some new shitty vampire series coming up on CW which appears to be such a flat-out ripoff of Twilight and True Blood that someone should sue someone else.
Enough, already, with the vampires. They’re all the same; sexy vampires fucking, with only minor alterations; in the “Sookie Stackhouse” novels/True Blood (and is that not the worst name ever given a protagonist?) they fuck a lot, whereas in “Twilight” they only fuck after marriage, and in Anne Rice they mostly just whine about it.
Seriously, we need about a 50-year moratorium on vampire bullshit. Nothing new has been produced in this genre in a generation.
Normally I would be in complete agreement. But I have just recently seen the film “Let the Right One In”, which is something that I haven’t seen before. So I support the moratorium on all angsty, over-sexed vampires esp if it includes actors and actresses who grace the covers of Tiger Beat.
I’d kinda hoped the vampire meme would take a serious deflating after John Carpenter’s Vampires (i.e. they’re not sexy and are only good for killing), but I guess it wasn’t a popular enough movie.
Don’t forget “the vampire’s assistant” or some stupid movie coming soon.
I am pretty sick of the vampire meme, and how every show/movie/book gets to make up its own, contradictory rules for how vamire-ness works.
Vamps are just an eternally useful metaphor.
The vampires in Twilight are used as a metaphor for abstinence. In True Blood they’re a metaphor for racism/homophobia, as well as sexual repression. Anne Rice’s swishy vampires were a metaphor for sexual and material indulgence.
There’s a reason the Twilight books, the True Blood books, and the Lestat books are all written by women. Women fucking love sexual metaphors.
Women love vampires.
Women hate zombies.
Men love zombies.
Men hate vampires.
Zombies are usually used as metaphors as well, but never as sexual metaphors. The metaphor of Zombies is usually a sociological one, representing a frustration with society/order/rules/other people.
Women have vampire fantasies because they all secretly want to be seduced by a powerful, dark man and be completely powerless to him. Men have zombie fantasies because they all secretly wish society would go to hell so they could run around and shoot people without repercussion.
The fact that vampires and zombies are both unusually trendy right now makes me think that our current culture is having some kind of repression issue. Even we’re unusually repressed with these fantasies, and have to live via these tired undead metaphors, or we’re finally unrepressed and allowed to revel in our undead trope of choice.
If you think that about pretty much any genre fiction then you are mistaken. One of the aspects of the crazy expansion in story-telling media recently is that every genre has plenty of room to grow. There are Sci Fi original movies, and there are a plethora of cop shows, and there are a tiny handful of prominent vampire properties. There are fewer popular vampire properties than either hospital or cop dramas.
Why all the hate? Is it even required that you be aware of genre fiction that you personally don’t like? I don’t particularly like CSI, but I don’t watch it either and it doesn’t bother me at all that it’s on.
I’m not quite as sick of zombies as I am of vampires, but we’re reaching that point. Zombies have been overplayed, and within a couple of years they’ll be as irritating as vampires.
We need some more werewolf fiction. I haven’t seen any decent werewolf stuff lately.
Vampires:
Twilight
True Blood
Let the Right One In
The Vampire’s Assistant
I guess you can throw the Anne Rice stuff in there but the books were written mainly in the 80s and the movies came out mainly in the 90s.
Zombies:
World War Z
Dead Rising
Left 4 Dead
Dawn of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead
28 Days/Weeks Later
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
It’s interesting what wierdaaron says about men liking zombies and not vampires and you confirming that considering that we are far more inundated with zombies than vampires.
Neither of course is going to go away anymore than superheroes or space operas will.
Werewolves are a metaphor for secret, carnal, uncontrollable desires not tolerated in a Victorian age. Wonder what that could be about.
There is a new Werewolf in London movie afoot, but I don’t see it doing very well. The jungian archetype behind Werewolves is no longer a part of the modern zeitgeist.
Now, the only people really into werewolves are the ones who call them “lycanthropes,” and are usually carryovers from goth vampire fans due to their historical symmetry. Underworld, for example…
I actually disagree with you about Werewolves but you might be right. They represent a primal aspect that is no less repressed today than it was in the Victorian era.
But I like vampires too. I recently realized that my reading list has been: Let the Right One In, Sookie Stackhouse novels, The Strain, and Fevre Dream. That is without any intention of reading vampire stuff specifically. I also watch True Blood religiously.*
For me, zombies not only appeal to the “what if” apocalyptic idea, but they seem to represent a never-ending inundation of problems - if I’m having an overwhelming, stressful week, I’m much more likely to have a zombie nightmare. So given the state of the news lately, it’s not surprising that zombies are popular.
Anyway, some vampire stuff is absolute garbage (that CW show is a ripoff of garbage - how dumb will that be?), and some is very high quality, and some is not Art, but is fun. It has been that way for decades and will no doubt continue.
*with a giant sacrificial statue made of meat, flowers, and feathers just by the front porch.
I actually called for a moratorium on vampire movies five years ago, little realizing how much worse the situation would become. Not in my worst nightmares did I ever imagine sparkling vampires.
Vampires:
Twilight - Books still being published, movies currently in production
True Blood - Books still being published, show currently in production
Let the Right One In - Book published in 2004, movie in production
The Vampire’s Assistant - Final book in the series published 2006 - Movie 2009
Zombies:
World War Z - Book 2006 - Movie currently in production
Dead Rising - Video Game only (why not include any vampire VGs?)
Left 4 Dead - Ditto
Dawn of the Dead - Original film 1978, remake 2004 - nothing current
Shaun of the Dead - Film 2004 - nothing current
28 Days/Weeks Later - 2002/2007 - Possible 3rd film
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Book 2009 - Film rights purchased
So other than 1 movie, a parody, and some video games, zombies appear past their prime (heh) while vampire are alive (heh) and well and taking over.
